


Companionable Silence

by afteriwake



Series: Simple As It Should Be [2]
Category: CSI: NY
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-18
Updated: 2012-09-18
Packaged: 2017-11-14 12:47:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/515385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes sitting in silence isn't so bad, because at least you're not alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Companionable Silence

He honestly had not expected her to stick around. 

But she stayed, talked to him until she absolutely had to get to work. He found that once he stopped disliking her so much, actually _listened_ to what she had to say, she wasn't so bad. She was a good listener, too.

He'd given her the cold shoulder because, to him, she'd been a replacement for Aiden. He hadn't said much about it but that's what she was. Even when everyone else started to really warm up to her, he kept his distance because she wasn't Aiden. She was different, and all those differences had annoyed him.

This one day wasn't a band-aid, he realized. But it was a start. Maybe now he'd stop focusing on her as a replacement, think of her as something else. Maybe a co-worker, maybe an acquaintance, maybe a friend...time would tell what category she fit into.

\---

She did her job around the lab the next day in...not silence, but something close. She'd joked a little with Danny, though neither of them put much heart into it. She'd talked a little with Hawkes, though it fell flat after a few minutes. She answered Stella's question on if she was okay with simple, monosyballic answers until the other woman went away.

It was like she was in a fog of a sort.

He'd talked to her. Nothing super deep and earth shattering, but they'd talked instead of being snippy or short with each other. It hadn't flowed naturally, but there _had_ been a flow to the conversation.

They'd stuck with safe stuff: some of their past, easy questions about what they liked. The only time things had gotten heated was when Lindsay had said her preference was for football instead of baseball and Flack had declared no sport was better than baseball.

She smiled a little as she thought about it. Had they gotten off on the right foot from the beginning, they'd probably be good friends by now. She liked people as her friends that didn't always agree with her, didn't force her to think their way.

And she'd made a decision at that point.

\---

He was awake, not really all that groggy. He wasn't in the mood to get an addiction to morphine so he'd already asked for the dosage to be cut. He could deal with pain. Maybe not _well_ but he could deal. He heard the soft knocking on the door, though, and debated for a moment telling them to go away so he could sleep but changed his mind. "Come on in."

He was shocked to see Lindsay in the doorway. "Want some company?"

"Sure." She came in, shut the door behind her and headed over to the bed. "How's the case going?"

"Decent. Mac's got a suspect in interrogation now, I think. Or it looked like he was going to have someone in when I left."

Flack nodded. "Good."

She sat down in the chair and looked at him. "Anyone else come by?"

"Stella came by this morning. Said the nurses glared at her because she wasn't family so she'd said it was for the case."

"I had to do the same thing." 

"They better get used to there being a steady stream of cops for the case, then." He grinned slightly. His face hadn't been burned, but he'd been cut up. It'd all heal eventually, or at least that's what the doctors had told him. The burns, not as much, but over time...

"Well, Mac's working us hard. We'd all pile in here if we could to keep you company, but expect long hours of boredom." She smiled at him. "He wants this case solved."

"He's not the only one."

She nodded. "So...anything decent on TV?"

"I've come to realize that I hate ESPN now after watching it for five hours straight." He motioned to the remote. "You want to watch something, be my guest."

She picked up the remote, turned the TV off. "I think I'd rather talk some more."

"Why'd you come back, anyway?"

She thought for a moment. "I really don't know."

"I thought you CSIs were supposed to know everything."

"If we knew everything our cases would get solved in no time," she said, laughing slightly. "Though that might not be a bad crime deterrent. If criminals knew they'd always get caught..."

"Naw, they'd still do it. Some just for the thrill, you know?"

She nodded. "Sad, isn't it?"

They sat in silence for a moment, Lindsay looking around and Flack studying her. "I get out in about a week," he said finally.

"That's good."

"Yeah. There isn't much they can do for the burns till I heal up a little more, and I'm not going to be doing that here."

"Any idea when you'll be back for work?"

"No. And at this point, I'm in no rush."

"Why?"

"I need a break."

She nodded. "Yeah, I would think so." They lapsed back into the silence for a little while, a longer spell than before. It wasn't bad to be quiet, she thought. Maybe a little boring, but not bad. "I must be horrible company," she said finally. "All I'm doing is sitting here."

"It's nice not to be alone," Flack said quietly. "Even if everything's quiet."

She gave him a smile, pulled her legs up and sat crossed-legged on the chair. "Yeah, quiet's good sometimes."

He grinned as well, picked up the remote. "Want to see what's on TV? Other than ESPN?"

"Why not?"


End file.
